In 1969, Parker's mother encouraged him to attend the Woodstock Music Festival, believing that it was a classical music festival. After he was forced to abandon his mother's new car in the mud along the road leading to the festival, he encountered what he regarded as his first wholly satisfying sexual experience.[5] His picture was taken there and appears on the poster collage for the Woodstock concert film released in 1970.[6]

Parker was one of the interview subjects of Dr. Dean Edell, who reported a surgical procedure that sought to restore Parker's foreskin from his at-birth circumcision.[7] The surgery was performed by Dr. Ira Sharlip, a urologist. The report was broadcast on television.